


True Love Mistletoe

by angelsfalling16



Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Christmas Eve, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Mistletoe, SnowBaz, deNiall, magical mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 10:43:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19105489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelsfalling16/pseuds/angelsfalling16
Summary: It's the annual Christmas party, and two people are brought together by a magical mistletoe.





	True Love Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this prompt](https://angelsfalling16.tumblr.com/post/185121687195/deniall-magical-mistletoe-kiss-merci) from @ace-of-haerts on Tumblr.
> 
> I know it’s only June, but I wrote a Christmas deniall fic! I hope you all like it!! Thank you @andakillerqueen for encouraging me to write this as a full fic! <3

**Dev**

I sneak down the stairs and into the kitchen, hoping to avoid the party that’s currently going on in the living room. It’s the Families’ annual Christmas party, and I’m usually safely hidden away in my room before any of the guests arrive, but some of them are early.

I’ve just come down to grab some food while I wait for Niall to arrive. As I step into the kitchen, I glance up to see the mistletoe that hangs above the entrance. I don’t know why my parents thought that that was a good place to hang it. It’s like it’s just waiting to trap unsuspecting people who just come in here to get some food.

I pass under it, and nothing happens. That was to be expected, though, because even though this is a magical mistletoe, it’s also a special type. People have deemed it the True Love Mistletoe. I doubt that’s it’s actual name, but it does do it justice.

If you step under it with someone, and the two of you have true love, you supposedly feel a pull to each other that can’t be broken until you kiss. It is unquestionably true love’s kiss.

But only if you’re lucky enough to find that person to begin with, which is why I’ve never been kissed beneath it. I’m only eighteen, so I shouldn’t be worrying about it, but there is a large part of me that worries I’ll never find the person who I’m meant to be with because I’m too busy being hung up on someone who will never feel the same.

I practically at glare at the mistletoe as I pass beneath it, hating how it has the power to bring two people together as well as the ability to tear people apart, which is why I don’t know why they insist on hanging it up every year.

As far as I know, the Families are the only ones who still know how to get ahold of this particular plant. You’d think that they want to avoid it after seeing the amount of marriages destroyed and affairs outed, but I suppose that’s part of the Christmas tradition. That, or it’s just for the entertainment aspect of the drama.

Shaking my head, I move over to the counter where various food items sit, trying to decide what would be the best snacks to take back to my room with me. There are various trays sitting there, waiting for guests to arrive and take from them.

“Hey, Dev,” my mom says, entering behind me.

“Hey. Niall and his parents will be here soon, and then, Niall and I will be up in my room.”

“You know that you are always welcome to join the actual party.”

I shake my head. “Thanks, but I’ll pass.”

“Okay. Have fun.”

“Thanks.”

“Oh, and those little sandwiches over there are delicious,” she says gesturing at one of the trays. “You should definitely get some of those before they’re all gone.”

She leaves me alone in the room again, and I finish gathering plates of food, enough that we hopefully won’t have to venture back down here during my parents’ Christmas party. I carefully carry the plates of food up the stairs to my room and just barely manage to get my door open without dropping any of it.

As the door swings open, my heart begins to race. Niall is already here, looking stunning in a charcoal suit. He’s kicked his shoes off and is just lounging on my bed, looking like that’s the place he belongs, in my bed. Or more accurately, on my bed.

He looks up and smiles at me, and it takes everything in me not to drop the plates I’m carrying as I feel my face warm just slightly.

“Hey,” I say, clearing my throat and looking away from him as I move to set the plates on my desk. “When’d you get here?”

“Just a minute ago. Your father said that I could come on up here.”

“You know that you didn’t have to wear a suit, right?” I say, fiddling with the plates a bit so that I don’t have to turn and look at him again just yet, trying to steady the racing of my heart in my chest.

“My mom made me, and don’t worry, I brought a change of clothes.”

“Good because that is not appropriate attire for movie night?”

“Are you saying I look bad?” He asks, and I tense slightly as I hear him slide off of my bed, knowing that he’s growing closer.

I turn to look at him, surprised. He could never look bad, especially not in that particular suit. I remember him wearing it to our Leavers Ball and wishing that I could ask him to dance with me. After seeing Baz and Simon dance together, barely caring what others might think of it, I was dying to ask Niall to dance, but the opinion of others wasn’t the only thing that was holding me back because there is of course the fact that he doesn’t feel the same way about me.

“What? No. It looks fine.” More than fine actually.

“I was kidding,” he says with a lopsided smile. “I’ll be right back.”

“Right.” I nod, wishing that the movement would help clear my thoughts. “I’ll grab the movies and get them set up.”

“Great.”

Once he’s gone from the room, I move to one of my bookshelves and scan through the movies that rest there for the scariest horror movies that I can find. This is a tradition that Niall, Baz, and I have. Every year, there’s a big Christmas party on Christmas Eve that our parents drag us to, but we decided long ago that we were not going to partake in the boring party that goes on downstairs, being forced to make small talk with people we barely know.

Instead, we do a sort of protest to all things Christmas during that time. It’s a little childish, but it isn’t something you can just stop after years of it, so every year, we gather and watch horror films.

With everything that was going on last year, what with the possible war coming, the party was cancelled, which seems to have turned out really well for Baz. I’m really hoping that he shows up at some point, even if he’s late, because I need someone here to be a buffer between me and Niall so that I don’t accidentally go spewing my feelings at him.

It wouldn’t do any good to start that now, not after all these years.

I hear my bedroom door open and turn around with the small stack of movies in hand -  we’ll only make it through one or two of the movies, but I wanted choices - to see Niall, who is now wearing sweatpants and skin tight t-shirt. He looks just as good in casual clothing as he does in a suit, and I have to force myself not to stare at him.

“Is Baz coming?” He asks after a moment when I don’t say anything, and I know that I’m doing a terrible job of not staring.

“Maybe,” I say, shaking myself and turning toward the dvd player to pop in one of the movies. “He and Simon are celebrating their anniversary, but he said that he would try to make it. I told him that he could bring Simon if he wanted to.”

“Ugh, does that mean that they’re going to make out in front of us during the movie?”

“Oh, uh, I didn’t think about that. I seriously hope not.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for them, but the next time I see them kiss, it’d better be at their wedding because I have seen them kiss enough times to last me a lifetime.”

“Same here. Just don’t mention things like that to Baz.”

“Kissing?”

“No. Weddings.”

“He’s worried that Simon is going to leave him.”

“Wait, why? Did something happen?”

“No,” I roll my eyes and pick up the remote, moving to grab the plates of food and handing one to Niall.

When I sit on my bed, I sit as close to edge as possible so that when Niall joins me, there is plenty of space left between us.

“Baz is just being an idiot and worrying about nothing. There’s a small part of him that believes he doesn’t deserve anything good.” I sigh, feeling bad for him but also sorry for myself as I watch Niall out of the corner of my eye. “He’s working on it, though.”

“After everything that he’s been through - that both of them have been through - they deserve to be happy.”

“Yeah.”I nod in agreement. “Alright, let’s stop talking about them and get the movies started.”

“Agreed.” He smiles at me again, and while this isn’t a rare occurrence, it never fails to make the butterflies in my stomach stir.

The movie begins, and I’m hyperaware of every movement that Niall makes. He brushes his hair out of his face, and my fingers itch to touch it. He shifts on the bed, and I want to move closer.

I try to force myself to focus on the movie, but it’s difficult when Niall is so close to me. I pick at the food on my plate and try to get invested in the main character of the movie. He’s being told a story about the local monster, and predictably, he doesn’t believe it’s true.

About twenty minutes into the movie, I give up trying to sit still and watch it. I need an excuse to get out of here for a bit.

“I’m going to go make some popcorn,” I declare.

“You’re going downstairs?” Niall asks with raised brows, surprised that I’m changing the rules of our little tradition, but it’s hard to keep up a tradition when Baz isn’t here to sit between us, effectively preventing me from staring at him the whole time.

I shrug. “I’ll be careful to avoid people. Don’t worry, I won’t abandon you up here.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“You don’t have to,” I begin, but he’s already starting to stand up.

“Come on. It will be easier to get out having a conversation with people if there are two of us.”

Sighing, I pause the movie, and we head downstairs together. Luckily, no one is near enough to see us approach, so we’re able to get to the kitchen without anyone trying to talk to us. I just hope no one is in the kitchen.

As we get closer, I realize that I forgot about the mistletoe. I’ve managed to avoid being anywhere near this thing with people that I could possibly like because it’s too much pressure. It breaks couples apart when they aren’t drawn together underneath it, or when they’re drawn to the wrong person - or, the right person, but not the person they’re in a relationship with.

I never wanted to find out whether Niall could ever feel the same way about me, and especially not like this. I know he doesn’t like me, and I don’t need a freaking mistletoe to tell me that. Now, as we step into its radius, I brace myself for what will happen. I expect it to push us apart, but that won’t happen. It doesn’t do anything unless the people underneath it have true love.

So, as I pass underneath it, I don’t expect anything to happen. I keep walking, trying to pretend like I’m not painfully aware of what it means that we’re not being drawn together, but after just a few steps into the kitchen, I feel myself being pulled backward. It’s like a cord tugging me back underneath the mistletoe, and for some reason, I panic. Because what if I turn around, and it isn’t Niall standing there.

There are other kids about our age here, so it’s a possibility. A possibility that I don’t want to even consider. Taking a deep breath, I turn around, bracing myself for the inevitable heartbreak.

The pull grows stronger as he steps closer to me, and we meet under the mistletoe.

“Niall,” I breathe. Then, he’s kissing me like his life depends on it.

He slips slide perfectly against mine, and it feels so right.

I’m vaguely aware of the presence of all the other people in the house. Any one of them could see us, but I find that I don’t care because it’s Niall. Niall is in love with me, something I never thought possible, and I don’t care who knows about it.

I wrap my arms around him and pull him closer to me, wishing that I never had to let go of him. But eventually we have to break for air.

We pull away, and before I can say anything - ask him what this means for us - I see Baz standing a couple of feet away from us, just outside of the mistletoe’s radius, and whether that was intentional or he and Simon, who is right behind him, just happened to stop there when they saw us, I’m not sure.

“Hi,” I say awkwardly as Niall and I pull apart.

I don’t look at him and turn towards Simon instead, who is standing there, looking a little overwhelmed, his gaze shifting around the house as he takes it all in.

I’ve gotten to know Simon quite a bit over the past year, and I know that he doesn’t like being around so many people that he doesn’t know. It makes him nervous, especially when it’s a bunch of Mages, like they all expect something from him or blame him for the Mage’s death.

I watch as he shifts his weight from one foot to the other, turning his gaze to the ground. I start to move towards him to lead him away from the crowd of people, but Niall beats me to it, not even sparing me a second glance.

I know that it’s stupid to be hurt by that because it was a true love mistletoe of all things, but it’s still hard to believe. Besides, one kiss doesn’t change anything.

Niall starts up a conversation with Simon as they move towards the hall, a little out of the way, and some of the tension leaves Simon’s shoulders, so I turn to face Baz, knowing that something is coming.

“I saw that kiss,” he says. “How long have you two been together?”

“We—. We’re not. It was just a kiss.”

He quirks a familiar brow at me. “That wasn’t just a kiss. Even if that mistletoe doesn’t only bring together two people who truly love each other, that kiss looked real.

I feel my face flush. “I don’t know if he feels that way about me.”

“It’s true love mistletoe. Of course, he has feelings for you.”

“Does that mean you’ll stand under it with Simon?” I ask, trying to take some of the attention away from me. “To see if what you have is true love?”

He shakes his head, and before I can ask why not, he says, “It doesn’t matter if a strand of mistletoe thinks that we’re meant to be. We love each other, and I don’t need that to tell me it’s true.”

“That, or you’re still afraid that it isn’t real. Which is stupid because Simon is in love with you, and I’m sure that’s the only reason he’s put up with you for an entire year.”

“Shut up,” Baz says, shoving me lightly. “Go talk to Niall. It appears that you need to.”

“What if he doesn’t want to be with me?”

“He’d be stupid not to.”

I chew my lip for a moment as we turn to look at where Niall and Simon are talking. Finally, I nod, and we move to join them.

“Hey, Simon.”

“Hello, Dev.”

“If you want something to eat, there is food in the kitchen. Baz’ll show you,” I say, giving Baz a meaningful look and all but shoving the two of them towards the mistletoe.

I don’t stay to watch what happens, instead turning to Niall and saying, “We should talk.”

Looking a little concerned, he nods before following me back up to my room.

“You never said anything,” is the first thing Niall says once the door has been shut behind us.

“Me? What about you? You could have said something.”

“Alright, we’re both at fault here. We both should have said something.”

“I didn’t think that you would feel the same way about me,” I admit.

“Of course, I do. I’ve been in love with you for years.”

I gasp quietly, looking at him with a look of shock as something pleasant washes through me, washing away all of my worries about this. Then, I’m moving towards him and closing the distance between us. Grabbing the front of his shirt, I pull him to me and kiss him soundly.

After a moment, I pull away long enough to say that I love him, too, and then, I kiss him again, tilting my head to deepen it and swallowing the quiet moan he lets out.

Too soon, there’s a knock at my bedroom door, and reluctantly, I pull away from Niall, hating the fact that there are other people here even more now.

“Come in,” I call, knowing that it’s most likely Simon and Baz.

When they enter my room, Baz is wearing a stupid grin, and I know what happened in the kitchen without having to ask. I reach out to hold Niall’s hand, lacing our fingers together, and smile to myself, knowing that even if it’s just for this moment, the four of us are happy and full of hope. Nothing stands between us and true love.


End file.
